Love Notes
by Infrared-Ultraviolet
Summary: Oh, what to do when your crush gets into a brutal car crash and you want to show him you care, but you're far too terrified to go and give him any consolation in person? Solution: Leave anonymous little get-well gifts in his hospital room while he's asleep. He'll never know it's you. But maybe, deep down inside, you want him to know. One-sided Child!Anna x Child!Hiccup, Modern AU.
1. Part 1

**Disclaimer: Disney owns the preview pic, not me. I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

It was one of the last truly hot days of summer, the scorching heat and blinding sunlight easily fooling anyone into thinking that school was still out. But alas, much to Anna Arendelle's dismay, it was September 4th and school had been going on for a good three weeks, and being trapped in stuffy classrooms with minimal air conditioning was something akin to torture. And of course, to add insult to injury, the third grade teachers had decided it would just be a splendid idea to give a classroom full of kids fresh out of vacation mound after mound of tedious spelling homework all throughout the three tiresome weeks.

Not that the 8-year-old was particularly focused on that right then. She was lying in the cool shade of her front porch and scribbling away at her coloring book, a pitcher of lemonade her mother had made sitting beside her. Every so often she would steal a glance at Hiccup Haddock's house, standing serenely across the road with its light blue paint looking like it could start running off like water at any moment in the hot sun. Anna surveyed it thoughtfully for several seconds, scrunching her brow in thought before returning to her coloring.

She found her eyes returning to the house again and again, try as she might to focus on filling in every last tree, flower, pathway, and dog in the park scene she was currently coloring.

As much of a pain in the behind as the spelling assignments had been, Anna's main concern was Hiccup Haddock. He hadn't been in school for about a week and a half (and she _knew_ he hadn't moved schools, as he'd been at school at the very beginning of the year—see? She was clever like that!), and she couldn't imagine that any fever or case of the flu would keep him home sick that long. She supposed he could have gone gallivanting off on one of those strange mid-year Hawaii vacations that kids seem to go on so often (and give jealousy-inspiring show-and-tell presentations all about them as soon as they got back), but that seemed odd, considering it was the very start of the school year, and there was no logical reason not to take a Hawaii vacation just a few weeks earlier, so as to avoid missing school and other such irrational things. Besides, she saw Hiccup's father drive home every day, and although being sent to have fun in Hawaii without one's parents was ideal, it seemed like the sort of thing that only happened in wistful daydreams—or perhaps a far-fetched children's book.

So Hiccup wasn't sick, nor was he in Hawaii. And every time Anna watched Hiccup's father get out of his car, his son was never with him. It was a very bizarre situation.

Not that Anna would be so conscientious of Hiccup's whereabouts, of course, if it weren't for the fact that she had been very much in love with him for a solid two years now.

Elsa would always roll her eyes whenever Anna insisted it was true love, making annoying comments along the lines of "Why? He's the weirdest kid in your grade and he won't shut up about dragons!" and "How often do you even talk to him, anyway? Once a month?" (Which, by the way, was _entirely_ untrue. Anna talked to Hiccup _at least_ twice a month, and once she had said "excuse me" while trying to get by him in a crowded part of the hallway and made it three times.)

Maybe an hour or two had gone by when Anna heard a familiar car engine, and her head shot up. Hiccup's dad's familiar black Ford Fiesta was pulling into his driveway. Anna watched in anticipation as the front door opened and the burly 6-foot-7 Mr. Haddock stepped out. Was the back door going to open as well?

She let out a grunt of disappointment as this proved not to be the case. Mr. Haddock shut the front door with a loud _bang_ , pressing a button to lock the car as he clomped inside. Anna noticed he looked very downtrodden. She felt the smallest nip of anxiety, hoping it didn't have anything to do with Hiccup's decided absence.

She watched the car for a while longer, hoping Hiccup would turn out to be in the back all along, simply choosing to play his Gameboy for a while longer before going inside. But as the sun sank behind the tiled roof of his house and the sky was washed over by the deep blue of twilight, it seemed that her anticipation was not going to yield anything. When Anna looked back down at her coloring book, she realized it had gotten too dark to even see the picture anymore.

Anna's front door opened, and her mother stepped out. "Time for dinner, sweetie," she said.

Just as she spoke, Hiccup's front door opened, and his father stepped out again. He shuffled back to his car, seeming to have forgotten something.

Anna looked back at her mother to see the brunette woman shaking her head. "Oh, that poor man," she murmured.

Anna felt her stomach twist. "Why? What's wrong with him? Why is he poor?"

Mrs. Arendelle looked down, seeming surprised her daughter had heard her. "Oh…he and his little boy got in a nasty car accident a little over a week ago."

And just like that, Anna's entire world collapsed.

"Some idiot plowed right into their backseat. Stoick came out fine, thank goodness, but little Hiccup's been in the hospital. He's expected to make a full recovery in about six weeks, but the poor thing's leg's been hurt pretty bad."

Anna's first feeling was relief. For one horrible moment, she had thought that the perfect brown-haired dragon-boy across the street had been snatched away from her, whisked off and trapped in the same place Grandma Alicia had gone to when she wouldn't wake up from her nap. But as she looked up at her mother and her blue eyes filled with superficial sadness, she felt a rush of anger.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she snapped. "I've been worrying about Hiccup all week!"

"Oh?" Mrs. Arendelle raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you two were friends. I've never seen you talk."

"We do _too_ talk!" Anna retorted. "And he's in my _class_ , Mom! Of course I wanna know if something bad happens to him."

Mrs. Arendelle seemed unfazed, smiling down at her daughter. "Well, that's very sweet of you to be so concerned about your fellow classmates, love. I just didn't want you to worry yourself with such…upsetting grown-up matters, that's all." She tousled Anna's hair, and the little redhead scowled.

* * *

A chime sounded as Anna closed the door of the candy shop behind her. The girl at the counter smiled and waved, and Anna waved eagerly back before beginning to tenaciously patrol the store, scanning the displays as she went.

The candy shop was placed right along her walk home from school, at the end of a block of shops that started to shift into houses. Usually Elsa herded her right past it, but today the platinum blonde was getting picked up and taken to ballet practice, meaning nothing was stopping Anna from going in and having a look around.

Once she located the chewy candy display, she made a beeline for it. Her eyes flitted over package upon package of gumdrops and licorice and flavored tootsie rolls and saltwater taffy until they locked on exactly what she needed: An entire pile of starburst packages.

The memory surfaced again: Valentine's day, second grade, Hiccup gasping in delight as he pulled a pack of superfruit starbursts out of his valentine box and then proceeding to parade around the room, showing them off to everyone (but, of course, in the rather shy, understated way that Hiccup showed off anything. And, of course, the classmates he tried to show off to paid his enthusiasm about the candy little mind or care). Anna anxiously scanned the selection of flavors, hoping they had that mystic mix of blueberry acai, strawberry starfruit, raspberry pomegranate, and passionfruit punch (all flavors that sounded like something straight out of her mother's health smoothies, she noted). There seemed to be every flavor pack _but_ that one. Tropical, fruit slushy, favoReds, summer fun, sweet and sour, and…ah! There it was!

Anna snatched up the little rectangular tube before the lopsided display could collapse on top of it and bury away her superfruit victory forever. She pranced to the front of the store and slid the tube up onto the counter, along with one dollar and fifty cents of her weekly allowance.

"Hope to see you again soon!" the girl at the counter called out as Anna skipped out the door. She turned and grinned. "Oh, you definitely will!"

* * *

"I want to visit him," Anna declared importantly, sauntering into her mother's office. Mrs. Arendelle looked down from her computer, pushing her reading glasses down her nose.

"Visit who, sweetheart?"

"Hiccup. In the hospital."

"You do?" Mrs. Arendelle chucked. "I must say, Anna, you're just full of surprises!"

"I, uh…" Anna held up the pack of superfruit starbursts. "I bought him candy."

Mrs. Arendelle beamed. "Well, that was thoughtful of you! I'm sure he'll appreciate that. Anyway…" She glanced up at her clock. "I'm off of work now, so that shouldn't be a problem."

All through the car ride over, Anna clutched the candy close to her. She stared aimlessly out the window, thoughts wandering and wrapping themselves around a thousand things that had nothing to do with her trip to the hospital. It wasn't until they pulled into the parking lot that the panic finally started to set in.

What was she _doing?_ What on earth was she going to say to him? How was she going to explain why she, of all people, was visiting him in the hospital without giving away everything she felt about him? She supposed she could just shove the candy into his hand and hightail it out of there, but unfortunately Hiccup was one of the smartest kids in their grade, and she figured it would only take one look at his favorite candy and her mortified face to piece together exactly what was going on.

Mrs. Arendelle stopped the car and stepped out. She opened up the back door, but Anna stayed firmly in her seat, seatbelt still slung across her shoulders. "Anna, come on."

"This was a bad idea," she mumbled. "I can't go in there. I wanna go home."

Mrs. Arendelle frowned. "Anna! I go to all the trouble of driving you over here, and you suddenly decide you _don't_ want to visit Hiccup after all?"

"I just wanted to give him candy!" she whined. "I don't know what I'll say to him if he's awake!"

Mrs. Arendelle let out an exasperated sigh. "If you're really _that_ nervous to talk to him, you can just ask one of the nurses to give him his gift for you. But for goodness sake, we're not leaving until you at least get rid of that tube of processed sugar!"

" _Mom!_ " Anna glared at her.

Mrs. Arendelle sighed again. "Aren't you going to feel better if you do what you came here to do? Don't you think you'll regret it a little if you just go home without giving that poor boy what you went to all the trouble of buying for him?"

Anna bit her lip. As much as she hated to admit it, her mother was right on this one.

"Fine."

"Don't sound so surly," Mrs. Arendelle said as she unbuckled her daughter's seatbelt. "This was all your idea!"

Twenty awkward minutes were spent in the waiting room with Anna twirling her starbursts around and around and Mrs. Arendelle continuously refreshing her email on her phone before a doctor opened up the door leading into the hospital hallway. "Iduna and Anna Arendelle!" he called out, and both of them slowly got to their feet.

"So you're here to see Hiccup Haddock?" he asked them. Mrs. Arendelle nodded.

"Well, I'm afraid he's asleep at the moment," he said. Anna's whole body deflated with relief.

"But I could tell him you were—"

"No, no!" Anna interrupted him. Her mother gave her a dirty look (she had been told many times that it was rude to cut people off), but she ignored her. "I just came to bring him this." She held up the candy, and the doctor smiled.

"Oh, I see! Well, in that case, follow me."

The doctor led them into a white hallway that smelled like iodine and disinfectant. The blaring starkness of the walls set Anna on edge, and she hunched in closer to her mother, holding her hand tightly.

At the very end of the hallway, the doctor opened a door and gestured for Anna to go in. She looked uncertainly up at her mother, who gave her a quick nod. "Go on. I'll wait outside."

The door clicking shut behind her, Anna's eyes widening as she took in Hiccup's sleeping form on the hospital bed. One of his legs was held up in a hefty sling, but other than that, there was nothing different or damaged about him. Anna smiled to herself, and shuffled over to the bedside table with a yellow notepad and pen sitting on it.

Most of it was just various notes written in medical gobbledygook, but she was able to find a blank page near the end of the pad. She hastily ripped it out and started scribbling a note on it, making a point of making her letters longer and more pointed than usual, and adding extra swirls to her round letters. She had to make absolutely sure that Hiccup didn't recognize the handwriting of the girl leaving him candy.

 _Hi Hiccup. I'm sorry you hurt your leg. I hope it doesn't hurt too bad. I brought you superfruit starbursts because I know you really like them. I hope you feel better soon!_

She carefully set down the pack of starbursts on the table, folding the note around it. Quietly, she settled into the stool perched by his bedside.

Hiccup was cute when he slept, she decided. His hair was spread out over his pillow in a soft, disheveled lump that framed a serene face…well, other than his open-hanging mouth and the line of drool coming out. Anna giggled, thinking it only made him cuter.

He was snoring. Not loudly and obnoxiously like her father did in hotel rooms, but with soft little grunts and puffs of air that that were nothing short of adorable. She sat watching him for a while, head in her hands, stupid grin creeping over her face.

He suddenly let out a snort, and Anna yelped aloud, shooting to her feet and nearly sending the stool toppling over in the process. Before she got the chance to see if Hiccup was actually waking up or not, Anna was out of the room, practically dragging Mrs. Arendelle down the hallway in her rush to get as far away from the hospital as possible.

* * *

"I want to visit him again."

Mrs. Arendelle looked up from her book, raising an eyebrow. "Twice in the same week? My my, Anna, you seem to be awfully fond of this boy!"

"I mean…uh…" Anna looked away.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you _like_ him!"

Anna's cheeks turned bright pink. "I—it's not like that! I just thought if I brought candy a lot, then it wouldn't stink so much to be stuck in the hospital." She carefully hid her pre-written note, folding it up so that she could conceal it behind the starburst tube.

"Well…all right. Since you're being so sweet, how can I say no?"

As her mother got up from the couch, Anna glanced at the clock. 10:00, the exact same time she had visited on Monday. She grinned. If she planned this out right, Hiccup would be asleep at this time and she could once again slip into his room and leave him his candy completely anonymously. On Tuesday and Wednesday night, she had had nightmares about him waking up and catching her in the act, but ultimately she decided she was willing to take her chances.

The process of visiting Hiccup went much like it had on Monday evening. They sat in the waiting room for a few minutes before a doctor escorted them to Hiccup's room. Anna noticed it was the same doctor as before, and he was smirking a little. Mortified, Anna studied the floor the entire walk down the hallway.

As she approached Hiccup's bedside table, she finally unfolded the paper and smiled to herself as she read her note.

 _Roses are red  
_ _Violets are blue  
_ _Just thought you should know  
_ _That I think everything of you_

It wasn't much, but it was a start.

She found herself watching the sleeping form of Hiccup again, looking just as serene and peaceful as ever. The steady rise and fall of his chest was so lulling that Anna herself started to get a little drowsy. _That's so creepy, Anna,_ she could almost hear her sister saying. Well, she was going to have to disagree. It wasn't creepy to watch someone sleep unless you broke into their house and snuck into their bedroom. Hospitals were public buildings, so watching a classmate snoozing was fair game.

Right?

Nevertheless, Anna hastily tore her eyes away from the sleeping boy and backed away, tiptoeing out of the room and shutting the door behind her.

* * *

It became a ritual of sorts. Every Monday and Thursday evening, Anna would get her mother to drive her over to the hospital, where she would leave a tube of superfruit starbursts and a new poem by Hiccup's bedside. It began to grow tiresome, constantly insisting to Mrs. Arendelle that she did _not_ like him like that one bit, but she was persistent. She knew her mother and Stoic Haddock often talked at the neighborhood night outs, and she couldn't well have any revelations of Anna Arendelle's true feelings slipping into those conversations.

She would let herself watch him sleep for a few minutes, although as the visits wore on, the time she watched him grew shorter and shorter, and eventually petered out entirely, leaving her darting in the room, leaving the note and candy, and fleeing the scene. It was partially due to the fact that she grew more and more paranoid that he was going to abruptly wake up while she was in there, and partially due to the fact that what she was doing could be considered, in some manner or form, something akin to creepy. Although, as she would haughtily remind anyone who confronted her on the matter, she was _not_ breaking into anyone's house. Thus, any creepiness was entirely subjective.

Her first several poems were nothing particularly impressive. She was hardly comfortable breaking the _roses are red, violets are blue_ formula, since poetry had never been her forte and having an easy start helped quite a bit. But if anyone deserved love poems, it was her injured crush, so she wasn't going to let a single soul say she wasn't trying.

The following Monday evening, she left:

 _Roses are red  
_ _Violets are blue  
_ _I think you should know  
_ _That you're really cute_

(Blue and cute counted as a rhyme, right?)

And then on Thursday:

 _Roses are red  
_ _Violets are blue  
_ _You're really attractive  
_ _Please marry me_

(Okay, maybe that one didn't rhyme, but she was sort of running out of ideas, to be honest)

After that, she started to get a little adventurous, even adding a second verse to her next poem:

 _Roses are red  
_ _Violets are blue  
_ _Your thought makes me happy  
_ _When I get the flu_

 _You really like dragons  
_ _And I think that's cool  
_ _I can't wait for you  
_ _To come back to school_

And then, the day after that:

 _Roses are red  
_ _Violets are blue  
_ _You're even better  
_ _Than a trip to the zoo_

 _I love that you come up  
_ _With fantasy places  
_ _When I'm falling asleep  
_ _I think of your face_

(Well, "places" and "face" didn't quite rhyme, but close enough, right?)

Eventually, she felt adventurous enough to tamper with the opening two lines:

 _Roses are red  
_ _Except when they're pink  
_ _If you were a sink  
_ _You'd be my favorite sink_

And then, the following Monday:

 _Roses are red  
_ _But sometimes they're white  
_ _You're really smart  
_ _And your imagination is bright_

And then, the following Thursday:

 _Roses are red  
_ _Violets are actually purple  
_ _Wait, purple doesn't rhyme with anything  
_ _Now I see why it says they're blue  
_ _Wow, I'm kind of just rambling to myself now  
_ _I need to go back and write an actual poem later  
_ _No way can I give this to Hiccup_

(Unfortunately, she had gotten distracted in the process of that one, and as it so happened, writing another poem completely slipped her mind and she didn't realize she had grabbed and left that horrid attempt at Hiccup's bedside until the car ride home.)

It had been three weeks when she left her latest poem on Hiccup's bedside:

 _Roses are red  
_ _Violets are not  
_ _In my heart  
_ _You've earned a spot_

She walked out of his room to see her mother speaking quietly to Dr. Martin, which Anna had learned was the name of the doctor who always showed them to Hiccup's room. As the doctor turned and walked away, Mrs. Arendelle looked unusually somber. Without a word, she grabbed Anna's hand and led her down the hall.

"Oh, that poor boy," she heard Mrs. Arendelle mutter finally as they walked into the waiting room. Anna's head snapped up to look at her mother in dismay, big blue eyes stretched even wider with fear.

"What's wrong with him? Why is he poor, Mom?"

"I was just speaking to Doctor Martin about how your friend is doing," the brunette woman explained. "The doctors have tried everything, but his leg is too damaged to save. They're going to have to amputate it."

"What does 'amputate' mean?" Anna asked anxiously.

"Remove it. Cut it off."

Anna cried out in alarm. "But that'll hurt really bad!"

"No, no, sweetie, they'll give him some medicine to make him go into a deep sleep," Mrs. Arendelle amended quickly. "He won't feel a thing."

"Oh." Anna's whole body slumped with relief, although it wasn't long before the concern bubbled up again. "But…will he have to hop around on one foot now?"

Mrs. Arendelle chuckled. "Oh no, sweetheart. He'll get this thing called a prosthetic leg, which is basically a man-made metal leg that the doctors will attach to his body and he'll have to learn to move it like he did his old leg."

"So he gets a robot leg?" Anna's eyes widened. "That's so cool! What's so bad about that?"

"Well, those prosthetics cost a pretty penny, for one thing. And losing a limb is always hard on the body, even if it can be remedied. And for him to have to go through that at such a young age…" The brunette woman shuddered. "I'd hate to see what the other kids have to say about it. They're always looking to pick on anyone who's different."

"I would _never_ pick on him," Anna said emphatically.

Her mother ruffled her hair. "I know _you_ wouldn't, dear, but there's no telling if others would. I hope for his sake, no one does."

She nodded earnestly, following Mrs. Arendelle out into the parking lot in silence. She didn't see what was so bad about having a mangled, beat-up leg replaced with a cool robot one, but if her mother was right, and it really _was_ going to be a nasty experience for Hiccup, her simple love poems suddenly seemed incredibly juvenile given his situation. So he was about to lose his entire leg, and the best she could do were short little _roses are red, violets are blue_ poems?

No, if she was _really_ going to do something to make him feel better, she needed to step up her poetry game quite a bit. And she knew just who to go to to help her with that.

* * *

 **Well hello there! Remember how, before I pranced off in an ADHD-induced frenzy to do Jackunzel week, I promised more Hiccanna? WELL, HERE IS THE "YOUNG LOVE AND MISSING CATS" PREQUEL NOBODY ASKED FOR! Eh, okay, ONE person asked for this…sort of. I had a reviewer to Young Love and Missing Cats ask if/when Hiccup lost his leg in my modern AU, and if his prosthetic was going to enter into the story at all. I actually had how all that happened figured out in my head, but I didn't want to cram it into the story because I felt like it was long enough already without stuffing excess angsty backstory about Hiccup's prosthetic leg in there. The whole story of how he lost his leg and the prosthetic leg itself really had no need to be mentioned in the story, so I left it out.**

 **BUT, when the reviewer asked about it, I started giving the whole backstory more thought, and formed a whole, elaborate story around it. And I was like hey, if I can't put this in the main story, I can make it into its OWN one-shot!**

 **One-shot MY ASS.**

 **What was ORIGINALLY meant to be a short lil fluffy one-shot turned into this fucking MONSTER that was SO DAMN LONG that I had to split it into 2 parts! Whoops ^^; But hey, Hiccup's missing leg is pretty integral to his character, so I felt like I kind of owed it to him to tell this little side story of how he lost his leg.**

 **I do hope I didn't make Anna seem like too much of a creepy stalker in this ^^; In her defense, though, she IS an 8-year-old kid. LOTS of kids have borderline stalkerish tendencies when they're younger that they eventually outgrow. I know I did XD And anyhow, Anna DOES actively try not to be creepy, so she has that going for her! Still, if you DO find this young Anna excessively creepy…well, don't let that ruin Hiccanna for you ^^; I promise she gets better when she gets older!**

 **Also, if you find Anna's poetry completely atrocious and are cringing at it nonstop, believe me when I say that that was 100% intentional XD She's a third grader, so…she kind of sucks. A lot. Also, I myself am not a particularly good poet, so by default the characters I write aren't going to be, either. Rest assured that this was more of a "stylized suck" than me really being that bad, though XD**

 **Hmmm…I really ended up liking Anna's mom in this. She's so down-to-earth and she sees right through all of her daughter's bullshit XD And rest assured, she definitely knows that Anna likes Hiccup, but is purposely acting like she's in the dark about it for Anna's sake.**

 **Until next week, when I'll be submitting Part 2, the thrilling conclusion-that-wasn't-actually-supposed-to-be-a-conclusion-but-rather-part-of-the-same-oneshot! Eh, but if I didn't submit it in 2 parts, no one would bother to read this longass thing. So I suppose the split is for the best :P 'Sides, it keeps everyone on the edge of their theoretical seats, so I suppose I can't complain. See you all next week!**


	2. Part 2

**Okay, since I couldn't reply to Noctus Fury's review directly since it was a guest review, I'm going to do it here. Thank you so much for your nice review! It means a lot to me that you would take the time to write such a detailed and nice review :D True that that Hiccanna needs more fanfics! Hence why I've made it my personal duty to provide those XD  
** **I love Idunn too! She's one of those characters who was originally meant to be nothing more than a background character and a plot device to get Anna to the hospital, but she ended up being a lot more awesome than I intended. Ha, believe me, she would never have expected Anna's crush on Hiccup to last 9+ years! I think she had some inkling that it was a bit more than just a flighty childhood crush, though. She probably would have given it until late middle school, at the very latest XD  
** **If you think Elsa is being a jerk in Part 1, then you ain't seen nothing yet XD I try to justify it in the AN, though!  
** **Damn, that's really impressive that you can write multi-page poetry! I'm lucky if I can pump out a short poem that doesn't sound stupid XD I mean, I'm not TERRIBLE, but I wouldn't win a contest or anything. Ahaha yes, it only makes sense that Anna's poetry was atrocious. Hopefully people found that more funny than cringe-worthy. But hey, I couldn't exactly make her Walt Whitman, now could I?  
** **IKR, I was SUCH a stalker as a kid! I didn't even know that stalking was a thing until I told my mom in the 5th grade that I wanted to slip a $20 bill into my crush's locker anonymously because "he was a great person and deserved money" and my mom was like "don't do that, that's stalkerish." I've pretty much outgrown it, although admittedly I do still stalk on social media…but even then, it's more to get more information about the guy's interests than because I'm hardcore obsessed with the guy in question.  
** **EEEEEEEEE, getting you to love Hiccanna is the purpose of my whole existence! I need to spread the love for this ship as far as possible and pull it out of obscurity :D  
** **Thank you again for your awesome review! I was worried I wouldn't get any, so when I saw yours it made my day :3**

* * *

Elsa Arendelle had always been modest about it, but she was somewhat of a poetry extraordinaire. She was well-known as being one of the best in her class, and it was said that everyone looked forward to her reading her poems aloud when the poetry unit of language arts rolled around. She had even gotten a series of poems about snow and winter and spiky icicles published in some _Children's Poetry_ anthology.

Anna wasn't going to pretend she had never been a little envious of her sister's poetic success, but right now, it was certainly going to come in handy. She skipped down the hall and rapped five times on Elsa's bedroom door.

"Elsa!" she called out. "I need your help!"

"What is it?" came the irritated reply. "I have homework!"

Anna huffed in annoyance. Elsa really hadn't been as fun since she entered middle school.

"Can you write a poem for me?" she asked. "Pleeeeeease?"

A long sigh from inside the room, and a few seconds later the door opened. Elsa looked down at her sister in puzzlement.

"Kind of an odd request. What do you need a poem for?"

"I…ah…" Anna's cheeks grew hot, and she looked away. "Well, I've been writing poems for Hiccup Haddock so he'll have something to make him feel better while he's in the hospital. But I kind of feel like I'm no good, and Mom said he's 'bout to get his leg angulated, so I need something _really_ good to cheer him up."

Elsa's mildly disgruntled expression turned into a full-on smirk. "Oh, it's for the _Haddock_ boy," she teased. "Your 'one true love.' Well, that explains everything."

"Elsaaaaaa!" Anna whined. "Mom will hear!"

"She's ten feet deep in a hole under a rock if she hasn't figured out you like that little weirdo by now," the blonde girl muttered under her breath. She grinned, pulling Anna into her room by the hand and shutting the door behind them. "Well, come on! Your little poetic love letter to Dragon Boy isn't going to write itself."

Elsa pulled out one of her notebooks and fingered through her cup of pens briefly before she settled on a turquoise one. She flipped open the notebook and set it on the floor, clicking the pen in and out. Both girls lay down on their stomachs, gazing at the blank paper thoughtfully.

"Now," Elsa said, "What sort of love poem for Dragon Boy did you have in mind?"

"Uh…" Anna bit her lip. In all honesty, she didn't even know where to start. Hiccup was going to lose his leg, and nothing she could think of seemed to lessen the badness of that situation.

"I dunno. I just want to tell him he's cute and everything will be okay."

"All right. 'You're cute and everything will be okay…'" Elsa began pretending to write, and Anna let out an alarmed screech, swatting the pen out of her sister's hands. "No, no, we can think of something better!"

Elsa laughed, reaching out to pick the pen up from where it had slid across the floor. "Oh relax, I was only kidding! Now let's see…" She chewed thoughtfully on the end of the pen. "In order to write a good love poem for someone, you have to know a fair amount about them…which I suppose you do, through stalking."

"I _don't_ stalk him!" Anna retorted. "Watching him in his front yard doesn't count as _stalking_ if I can see his house from our front window!"

"Yeah, and somehow through just 'watching' him you figured out every last one of his likes, his dislikes, his birthday, his nervous habits, his astrological sign, his most prominent fears, and his social security number," Elsa deadpanned. ( _That's not fair at all!_ thought Anna. _I never learned his social security number!_ ) "Yeah, you've definitely been stalking him," she concluded, and Anna glowered at her. "But that's all right, we can romanticize that. Let's take a…hmmmm…a 'secret admirer' approach? Make it a little sad, too…you know, to get him to _feel_ for his poor, unnoticed secret admirer a bit. Ah! That's it!"

Elsa quickly scribbled something down on the paper. Anna looked over at it and nodded approvingly.

"Now!" Elsa put down the pen. "You see, poetry is all about describing things. And a good way to do that, I've learned, is by making comparisons. Let's start with his appearance."

"Okay!" Anna nodded eagerly.

"Well, he's got brown hair. What else is brown?"

"Mud!" Anna chirped excitedly.

Elsa sighed. "No, that won't work. We need something a little more…poem-friendly."

"Dirt?" she offered.

"That's not going to work either."

Anna scrunched up her brow in thought for a second before her eyes lit up hopefully. "Oh! Poop!"

Elsa shook her head rapidly. "No, no, _definitely_ not that!"

Anna was at a complete loss as to what her sister was looking for. "Bruises?" she offered. "Certain types of spiders?"

Elsa let out an exasperated groan. "Anna, it's _really_ not very flattering to tell someone that their hair is like spiders." She took a deep breath. "How about chocolate? That's something brown that's also nice."

"Okay!" Anna nodded enthusiastically, deciding that was much better than any of her suggestions. This was why Elsa had been published in a poetry anthology and she had not.

The blonde girl scribbled something down and then turned back to her sister. "Okay, now we have to describe his eyes. Do you know what color they are?"

"Green!" she piped up excitedly. "A super pretty dark green."

"Dark green, lovely. What else is dark green?"

"That ground-up spinach thing Mom forces us to eat sometimes."

Elsa wrinkled her nose. "Try something else."

"Uh…lakes with that algae stuff in the water that makes it look green?"

"True, but…that's kind of a complicated thing to compare his eyes to."

"Seaweed? Cucumbers?"

Elsa let out an exasperated sigh. "No, Anna, we have to compare his eyes to something _poetic!_ Something conventionally beautiful."

Anna ran a hand through her red hair, desperately racking her mind for something dark green _and_ pretty. Besides Hiccup's eyes, that was.

"Like…some…sort of…plant?"

"Yes! Perfect!" Elsa nodded vigorously before looking downcast again. "But…which one?"

"Uh…" Anna hesitated, the only plant that immediately came to mind being poison ivy, and Elsa probably wouldn't think that was a good comparison to make to the eyes of the boy she was trying to cheer up and subconsciously woo.

"A _fern!_ " Elsa suddenly exclaimed, eyes lighting up with excitement. "That'll work! But…we can't just say _fern_ …we have to add an embellishment to make it sound more beautiful and sophisticated." She picked up the pen and jotted down the next couple of lines of the poem.

"And now I'll just add a line about you thinking about him late at night, and then we can move on to the next part of the poem," she muttered. After the line had been written, she looked back up at her sister.

"So what do you like about the Haddock kid, exactly?"

"Well, he's super creative," Anna offered. "He always looks like he does the most fun games. And he's smart, too. I see A's on his tests when he gets them back, but then he gets all self-conscious and tries to hide them. It's really cute."

"So let's start with him being creative. We have to use a simile here to drive that point home, so we'll say his imagination is…er, bright as…what's something that's bright?"

"The sun!" Anna cried gleefully.

Elsa considered the answer, and shook her head. "No, that's too…obvious. We need something more subtle…something that invokes romance, you know?"

"The…moon? I heard some teacher at school talking about 'moonlit romance…'"

"No, too cliché. Although I think you're on the right track…"

Elsa suddenly slapped the ground in realization, making Anna flinch. "I know what! Stars!"

She quickly wrote down another line before moving along to the next trait Anna had mentioned.

"Now, you said he's smart too. So we can say he's got a sharp mind. But sharp as what?"

"A knife?" Anna suggested.

"No, too creepy."

"Scissors?"

"That sounds a bit weird. 'Sharp as scissors.'"

"Oh! A screwdriver!"

"That's not very romantic, Anna."

Anna opened her mouth to make another suggestion, but her sister cut her off.

"Oh, that'll work!" she exclaimed, scribbling down the next line after apparently having had an idea of her own.

Anna was a bit dejected that all of her ideas were being overturned, but she decided it was for the best. Elsa was the expert, after all.

"Now." Elsa studied her sister intently. "What else do you like about the Haddock boy?"

"He's…" Anna hesitated. "…nice? I mean, he doesn't talk a whole lot, but when he does, he's really nice."

"So…you could say he's got a sweet disposition."

Anna looked utterly perplexed. "What's a disposition?"

"You know…temperament. Personality."

"Oh!" The little redhead girl's eyes lit up with understanding.

"A sweet disposition…" Elsa muttered, half to herself. "Yep, can definitely make a sappy simile about that. What's a sugary food?"

"Sweetened milk!" Anna piped up.

Elsa chuckled. "Well, all right then. I think I can make that work. Maybe another one too?"

Anna paused and thought for a moment before her eyes glowed with sudden excitement.

"Cinnabon rolls! You know, like the kind Mom brings back from the mall?"

"Sure, why not?" The blonde girl paused to write down the next couple of lines.

"Now, you're always going on and on about the Narnia-type stuff he's always coming up with," she said after she was done. "If you found that out in a _non-creepy_ way, we can include that too." She gave her sister a hard look.

Anna grinned triumphantly. Oh, Elsa was _not_ going to have the satisfaction of calling her a stalker this time!

" _Actually_ , I know it because I always see him doodling on the corners of his paper," Anna said crossing her arms. "I haven't been flipping through his sketchbook while he's not looking, if that's what you think."

Elsa raised her eyebrows. "I never said that."

Anna's cheeks burned. "Well…well, _good_ , because I'm not!"

"Anyways, page-corner doodles. _That_ we can work with."

"Yeah, and he's always drawing—" Anna started excitedly.

"Anna." Elsa gave her a tired look. "You've told me at least four thousand times already about Hiccup's discount Narnia creatures."

"Oh. Right." Anna rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.

Smiling encouragingly, she added, "I think I've got this."

Anna watched her sister jot down the next few lines, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"Now!" The blonde looked over the poem, seeming quite pleased with herself. "All we need is a handful of more love metaphors, and a long, sad ramble about how someday you hope he'll notice you, and I think we can wrap up this poem and call it a success!"

"Yay!" Anna bounced giddily up and down, excited to hear the poem in its entirety. She was sure that whatever her sister had come up with was spectacular.

Elsa didn't speak to her as she worked on the next several lines, the only sound coming out of the blonde girl being mumbles to herself about meadows and mysteries and mazes.

The mumbles gradually turned to mumbles about "secret admirer angst," and after a few more minutes, Elsa sat up and slapped the pen down.

"Done!" she announced.

"Lemme see!" Anna reached over and snatched at the journal, but Elsa pulled it away and held it out of reach, laughing. "Okay, okay, hold your horses! At least let me tear the page out first."

Elsa tore out the page and handed it calmly to Anna, who snatched it up impatiently and started to read it.

 _Perhaps one day you will open your eyes  
_ _And see who has been there all along, in the background, admiring you from afar  
_ _Your milk chocolate hair and eyes like summer ferns  
_ _Fill my mind as I drift to sleep each night  
_ _You, with an imagination as bright as the stars  
_ _A mind as sharp as a dart  
_ _A disposition like milk with honey, sweet and inviting  
_ _Soft kindness like a warm, sweet cinnamon roll  
_ _With vast worlds and realms beyond count hidden inside you  
_ _Full of dragons and nymphs and phoenixes and everything in between  
_ _Seen in little glimpses and snatches in doodles in the corner of your paper  
_ _You are an endless field that I could never stop running in  
_ _An enigma that will keep pulling me in forever  
_ _A maze that I one day hope to know every turn and corner in  
_ _Perhaps one day you will know who I am  
_ _But until then I will continue to watch from a distance  
_ _Perhaps one day I can close the gap between us  
_ _But until then I will be watching over you like a guardian angel_

 _—_ _Your Secret Admirer_

"Elsa!" Anna screeched, tackling her sister in an enormous, bone-crushing hug that made her gasp for breath a little. "It's perfect! Thank you!"

"Ah, it was nothing." Elsa smiled shyly. "I had fun!"

"It's so _good_ ," Anna squealed. "Hiccup's going to be so impressed!"

"Well, I would hope so, or else we've just wasted an entire afternoon!" Elsa joked. She shook her head, giving her sister a wan smile. "You know, in all honesty, I still think what you're doing is super creepy, but hey…if leaving complimentary-but-mildly-stalkerish poems for Hiccup is what'll cheer the kid up, I'm not against it. I think it's really sweet that you're trying to help, even if you're a total creep."

Anna's delighted beam turned to a scowl. "I am _not!_ "

"If you say so, sis," Elsa said, not sounding convinced. "Anyway, I hope you think the poem is a satisfactory gift for Dragon Boy."

"It is!" Anna chirped, brightening up again. She hugged the paper to her chest. "Thank you, Elsa!"

"My pleasure," her sister said. She gave her a couple pats on the shoulder before seizing both her shoulders and shoving her toward the door. "Now go away! I have geometry to do."

Anna hardly noticed as she was pushed ungracefully out of the door frame, the bedroom door slamming shut behind her. Holding up the poem triumphantly, she skipped down the hallway, imagining how much better those superfruit starbursts would taste while Hiccup was reading it.

* * *

It was a crisp fall morning, the oak trees in the school's front courtyard adorned with bright, flame-colored leaves, when Hiccup returned to class.

She was happy to see him well again, undoubtedly. Seeing him up and about and back to the Hiccup she knew too well was much better than seeing him motionless in a hospital bed, his leg strung up in a thick cast that would ultimately prove to be useless. Nonetheless, as soon as he walked into the classroom door, her face burned. When his jade-colored eyes scanned the classroom and landed briefly on her, she quickly set her own gaze on her plastic desk, worrying obsessively that if he looked at her long enough, he would see into her soul and realize that she was, in fact, the one who had left mediocre love poem after mediocre love poem (well, except for Elsa's) in his hospital room. Perhaps there was no need for him to even see into her soul if her trembling and blushing at the sight of him gave her away.

Ever so cautiously, she flitted her gaze upward to Hiccup again, relieved to see he was now looking elsewhere. The sight of a metal rod sticking into his shoe where his left calf should have been was a little jarring, although Anna had gotten used to the thought of him having a prosthetic by now.

The other students, she noticed, seemed to be more disconcerted by it. Some seemed to be critically looking the boy up and down while avoiding eye contact, others looked away immediately as soon as they saw it, while still others eyed the replacement limb with open disdain.

In spite of every raging fear she had that she was going to reveal her embarrassing escapades to the hospital if she so much as breathed on Hiccup, she turned and caught his eye as he walked past her desk. Smiling shyly, she quietly told him that she was glad he was back and she hoped he felt better. Clearly not knowing how to handle the unexpected welcome, Hiccup rubbed the back of his head and looked away, mumbling something nearly inaudible about how he was glad to be back too.

Sucking in her breath and mustering all the confidence she had, she told him his new leg looked cool. The brunette boy gave her the faintest of smiles and a fairly genuine-sounding "thanks, Anna!" She gave him a "you're welcome" and a final encouraging smile before rapidly turning away, so as not to make eye contact for too long. After all, only girls who left candy and notes in your hospital room while you were asleep looked you in the eyes for more than three-quarters of a second.

She heard him shuffle off to his desk, and only after she was positive he was no longer facing in her direction did she steal a glance over her shoulder. As he sat down at his table, none of the other kids paid him any mind, continuing their own private conversations without so much as sparing him a glance. In fact, the girl next to him made a point of scooting her chair a little father from his as soon as her eyes landed on the metal leg. Anna tensed, her hand curling into a fist, but she forced herself to look away and relax. If it got back to Hiccup that she was getting worked up over the other kids being nasty to him…well, it would take a grand total of five seconds for him to put two and two together and realize that she had left the notes. He had scored "Advanced" on his CSAP standardized tests, after all.

The teacher crisply welcomed Hiccup back, and a few kids mumbled welcomes of their own, but within seconds she had launched into the instructions on how to do the "History of Western Railroad Construction" project. After a few minutes, she let the students loose to start the project, returning to her big old teacher desk to sip bitter coffee and check emails.

Anna turned and stole another glance at Hiccup, and saw that he was discreetly inching out of his chair and getting to his feet. He slinked across the room, hunched down into himself as if to get as far away from the boring eyes of his classmates as possible. At first Anna thought he was going to get a railroad book from the book cart on the far side of the room, but when she caught a glimpse of the steely determined look in his green eyes, she decided that wasn't the case. Generally people did not have steely determined emotions toward going and getting a research book.

Her attention was momentarily pulled from the brunette boy by Rapunzel's alarmed squawk across the table. Anna turned to see Jack Overland-Frost yanking on Rapunzel's long hair and pulling it toward him.

The brunette boy draped the end of it over his own head and grinned cheekily. "Look, I'm Rapunzel and my hair is five miles long!" he mocked in a high-pitched voice. "Oh _no!_ I have so much extra hair that I seem to have grown a mustache!" He took a piece of her hair and held it above his upper lip to emphasize his point.

"Jaaaaaack!" she whined.

"Hey!" He pulled the blonde hair off of his head and began whacking its owner in the face with it. "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!"

"Put my hair down!" She gave the brunette boy a stubborn pout for a while before eventually breaking out in delighted giggles.

"You're such a poopyhead." Although she called Jack just about the worst insult known to the third grade class, it was clear from Rapunzel's giddy tone and the soft, gooey smile she was giving the brunette boy that she was thoroughly enjoying every minute of the experience.

Anna smirked to herself. Rapunzel sure had a strange way of flirting with her crush.

Well, at least she was _able_ to.

Anna looked away, suddenly feeling a desolate sadness settle over her as she realized she would never be able to flirt with Hiccup like that, lest he figure out the truth behind the poetry in his hospital room. Not as thought she'd be able to flirt with him like that anyway. She was lucky on days when she even managed to speak to him.

Hiccup's voice sounded from nearby, pulling Anna out of her thoughts. She sat up, blue eyes wide and alert as her head swiveled all around the classroom, trying to spot where he was. She finally sighted him a few tables over, standing and leaning over it with his hands on the hard gray plastic. Astrid Hofferson and Merida Dunbroch were sitting on the other side, watching the dragon-loving boy with looks that seemed to be half-annoyed and half-suspicious.

"Merida, I liked the notes," he said shyly. His voice was quiet and hard to pick up among the general din of classroom conversation, but Anna strained her ears.

Merida narrowed her eyes. "What d'yeh think yer _talking_ 'bout?" she growled.

Hiccup's cheeks began to redden, and he started to anxiously rub the back of his head. "You know…the notes you left in my hospital room? The really nice love poems?"

Merida's eyes lit up with a fury so intense that Hiccup visibly winced. The redheaded girl slammed her palms on the table and stood up with such force that her chair tipped right over and clattered to the floor.

"Why would yeh _ever_ think Ah would leave yeh _love notes?_ " she roared, with such might that half the class looked over at her in thinly-veiled terror. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in mah entire life. Yer completely _daft_ , Hiccup Haddock!"

"Why would _she_ , of all people, write _you_ love notes?" Astrid added scornfully. "Merida has standards!"

Hiccup ducked away, his eyes widening. "W—well, because the doctor said some 'cute little redhead girl' kept coming in and leaving poems and candy and stuff in my room while I was sleeping, and it can't be MK because she's dating Nod, and it can't be Anna because she barely acts like I exist!"

It was as if Anna had been smacked with a metal rod, thrown to the ground with the wind knocked out of her.

She had hated the thought of Hiccup tracing the notes back to her. Honestly, she had. It made her face burn and her skin sweat and every part of her feel like it was shriveling up from the sheer embarrassment of the idea. She couldn't imagine how mortified she would be if he ever found out.

And yet, for whatever reason, the thought of him dismissing that the notes were her doing out-of-hand made her entire body deflate and sag with a strange kind of disappointment.

So she "barely acted like he existed." Was that really what he thought? If it wasn't so upsetting, it was almost laughable.

"What, and Ah _do_ pay attention tae yeh?" Merida crossed her arms and glowered at Hiccup. "Yer crazy, Dragon Boy!"

Hiccup smiled meekly. "Well, you talk to me in the morning sometimes."

"That's because our lockers are right next tae each other, yeh daft idiot!" she barked. "'Sides, the only time Ah talk to yeh is tae tell yeh tae get out of mah way!"

He looked away. "I just thought since you're not as mean to me as some of the others, maybe you were the one who…" He trailed off.

"Ah've got no good reason to pick on yeh, Haddock," she snapped. "That's why Ah let yeh alone. But if yeh keep insistin' that I wrote all those stupid notes, I'll _start_ havin' a good reason to pick on yeh!" Her hand balled up into a fist, and she took a threatening step around the table toward Hiccup. Astrid reached out and grabbed her arm, tugging her back.

Hiccup let out a nervous laugh. "It's weird, it's just…if you didn't write the notes, I can't think who did. _Someone_ had to have." He shot the smallest glance at Astrid. Anna thought she picked up the slightest trace of longing in his luminous green eyes, but she could have just as easily imagined it. She hoped she did.

He turned his attention back to Merida. "You know Merida, if you really did write the notes, you don't have to be embarrassed," he said reassuringly, giving her a warm smile. "I think they're really great! I promise I won't tease you or anything. In fact…uh…" He awkwardly rubbed his arm. "You can even be my girlfriend if you want to be."

" _WHAT?!_ " Entire body quivering with rage, Merida ripped her arm out of Astrid's grip and stormed around the table. "Ah already told yeh, Ah didn't write yeh any stinkin' love notes! Ah don't know what's wrong with yeh that yeh can't realize that. Ah'd rather eat mah own poop than be caught _dead_ with a loser like yeh!"

She shoved him hard, and he crashed against the wall in what looked like a rather painful way. Several kids burst out laughing. Anna stared down at the plastic of her table, silently pleading for the laughter to end.

It finally did when the teacher stood up, shouting Merida's name. The red-haired girl hung her head and plodded across the classroom, where the teacher grabbed her arm and tugged her angrily into the hallway. The laughter died down as the students watched its perpetrator go, but many of the kids still felt inclined to send Hiccup derisive looks as he slinked back to his table, staring intently at the ground.

* * *

Fallen leaves swirled in the breeze as Rapunzel and Anna crossed the schoolyard. Rapunzel was talking animatedly about some book her mother had read her—a story about a chameleon and a horse saving a town from an evil witch—as well as the corresponding puzzle book. Although she had been going on for a while now, Anna was content to just listen.

The blonde trailed off as they walked through a grove of pine trees and emerged on the edge of the playing field, where both girls made out a familiar group of kids in the distance.

The thin, shrinking form of Hiccup was surrounded by a semicircle of hefty boys—Anna recognized them as the kids who usually were first picks for the recess soccer teams, when that was going on. Even from across the field, she could see they were all leering at him, shooting disparaging looks at his prosthetic.

They seemed to be closing in on him, stepping closer and closer with their sneers and laughs while he tried to make himself as small as he possibly could. Anna's fists started to clench.

One of the boys stepped forward and shoved Hiccup sharply, sending him tumbling roughly down onto the grass. The entire group broke into laughter, and another boy kicked the top of his prosthetic leg sharply. The brunette boy winced.

Anna's whole body began to shake with fury.

"I _hate_ them!" she spat. "He's never done anything to them, and yet they're still mean to him. Those bunch of…bunch of _jerks!_ "

"So go stop them, then!" Rapunzel unexpectedly shoved Anna forward, causing the redheaded girl to let out a squeak of alarm.

"Wh—what?" Anna turned and stared at her best friend in shock.

"Well, they're not going to tell off themselves!" Rapunzel retorted. "Come on, if you don't go and tell them to knock it off, who's going to?"

Anna's cheeks flushed bright red. "I—I can't go help him! If I do, it'll be obvious that I wrote the poems and then—"

Rapunzel crossed her arms. "Oh, so what? And what, you're going to just stand around and watch him get picked on so your little love notes can be a secret forever?"

Anna shook her head rapidly, expression frantic "Punzie, he _can't know._ If he does, he'll tease me for the rest of my life and I'll shrivel up and die!"

"Just because you stand up for him doesn't mean he'll think you were the one who wrote the notes," Rapunzel insisted. "Besides, Hiccup's nice! He wouldn't tease you for liking him and stuff."

Anna bit her lip, considering what Rapunzel was saying. Her mind strayed briefly to what he had said to Merida, about liking the notes and promising not to tease her. He had even offered to let her be his girlfriend.

Would he give Anna the same treatment if he knew she was the one responsible?

She looked back over at the laughing bullies, and her stomach knotted.

"B—but Rapunzel!" she stammered. "What if the bullies start making fun of _me_ instead, and they point out everything terrible about me and Hiccup hears and starts thinking I'm really lame?"

Rapunzel snorted. "Why would he care about the dumb opinions of the kids who were being mean to him? Come on!" She gave Anna another shove. "He's just going to be thankful."

"Punzie, no!" Anna wailed, flailing in protest as she was pushed across the field. "He'll know I left the notes, and he'll hate meeeeee! _He'll hate meeeeee!_ "

Finally, Anna dug her heels firmly into the grass, and after a few gallant attempts, Rapunzel gave up trying to push her any further. The blonde girl sighed.

She sighed. "All right, fine, don't help Hiccup. Bu-ut…if you really loved him as much as you say, you'd go and do something!" she singsonged.

Anna turned and glared at her friend. How dare Rapunzel question her undying love for Hiccup Haddock?

"Fine," she huffed. "You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go over there and give those meanies a piece o' my mind!"

Rapunzel grinned broadly and clapped her hands excitedly. "Yay!"

Anna began marching importantly across the field, eyes fixed on the bullies who were still laughing and looming over the fallen Hiccup. He had started to scoot away from them, but they were still prowling toward him looking as though they were about ready to kick him again.

She suddenly imagined herself in Hiccup's place, the bullies standing over her and taunting her and pointing out everything that was absolutely horrible about her. She imagined Hiccup watching meekly from the sidelines, and giving his classmate's many flaws some serious thought for the very first time. She imagined him wrinkling his nose in utter disgust at the thought that _she_ was the one behind the poems. Her, the awkward, ditzy, invisible girl who was no more worth his affection than a pile of dung beetles was.

She stopped and stood still, a lone figure in the vast expanse of grass.

 _I can't do this._

For a mere few seconds she had convinced herself she could, but now it was all too clear that this was a task whose consequences she simply wasn't ready for.

She continued watching the little scene unfold and, to her delight, the bullies had finally seemed to have had enough. They walked away in a tight group, still laughing and shooting cruel comments over their shoulders. Entire body deflating with relief, Anna turned and ran back to Rapunzel.

"I didn't even have to tell them to leave Hiccup alone!" she said, grinning proudly. "They left on their own! See?" She stuck her tongue out. "He didn't need me after all, and you were totally wrong!"

Rapunzel's green eyes flashed with a brief disappointment, but she quickly covered it up with one of her sunny smiles.

"Well, you could still go and ask him if he's all right. Go on!"

She gave one of her shoves, and with a resigned sigh Anna started back across the field. She supposed that couldn't hurt.

In the next second he stood up, brushed off his clothes, and casually walked away as though nothing had happened. As he got farther and farther away, Anna turned and gave Rapunzel a wan smile.

"You know what, Punzie? I think he's going to be just fine."

* * *

"I don't get it."

Among the hustle and bustle of kids in backpacks leaving the schoolyard with their parents, Hiccup Haddock was curled up quietly under a pine tree, completely immersed in a book. Anna was watching him from several feet away (no, not _watching_ —that sounded too creepy. Observing, perhaps?), Rapunzel standing next to her with her arms crossed.

"You made all the effort of writing him those poems and giving him that candy, and you _never_ want him to find out?"

"Nope!" Anna beamed cheerfully. "He doesn't need to know. But he's gonna feel so awesome about himself now."

Rapunzel crossed her arms. "Yeah, and he'll just keep not really feeling anything about your existence."

"That's fine," Anna insisted. She blushed shyly. "I don't even know what I would do if he _did_ start…you know…kinda noticing me."

The blonde let out a heavy sigh. "So…you're _never_ going to tell him? Not even when we all get older?"

Anna kept her gaze fixed on Hiccup, so entirely wrapped up in the private world that there wouldn't ever be a place for her in.

She smiled, shaking her head. "No. Never."

* * *

 **Wooooo, Part 2!**

 **"WHAT?!" you screech, shedding your human form as black wings sprout from your back and you send a pillar of infuriated demon fire my way. "THAT'S IT?! But that was the most disappointing ending ever! Is he seriously never gonna find out about the notes? And get picked on without Anna every doing anything? HOW DARE YOU, I HATE YOU FOR YOUR STUPID OVERLY LOOSE ENDINGS!" Shhhhh, calm down! And whoa, hey, you can stop setting me on fire now. ALL of the stuff in this story will be resolved in the upcoming sequel to Young Love and Missing Cats! I definitely have a plan to work all of these issues out, just not within the particular time period this story focuses on. And yes, I was just as frustrated as you were that Anna didn't end up standing up for Hiccup, but she's only human, and she's flawed. She doesn't always do the right thing, even when she wants to.**

 **My apologies if Elsa is a bit OOC here. I admit, I made her more of a jerk than she actually is for the sake of comedy ^^; But hey, I've had this scene in my head for months now, and it was so funny I had to keep it, even if Elsa's being kind of a know-it-all. For whatever reason, I imagine Elsa as one of those girls who tried to get "in with the cool kids" as a teenager, and ended up being a little bit more snobby/conceited because of it. I mean, she outgrew it, obviously, but we only saw her as a 21-year-old…so who's to say what she would've been like as a teenager, and without the ice powers forcing her to isolate herself?**

 **Anywho, I do like to show the more realistic aspects of Anna and Elsa's relationship in my fanfictions. Like put a little more spotlight on their sibling rivalry instead of making everything rainbows and roses, you know? Also, Elsa constantly shooting down Anna's ideas wasn't meant to show her as a jerk; it was just meant to emphasize how absolutely clueless Anna is about writing poetry and how much she straight up sucks at it XD Hey, stories are more interesting when protagonists are actually BAD at stuff, amirite? I definitely think Elsa would be the one of the two of them who's better at poetry, what with her being more "refined" and all.**

 **If you thought Elsa's poem was good, great! If you thought it was overly corny and clichéd, then my excuse is that Elsa is, after all, only in 6th grade, so she doesn't know how to write super original poetry yet X3 Hey, kids will be kids, slightly-better-than-average poetry and all!**

 **And whoooo boy, apologies to any Mericcup shippers out there ^^; If it makes you guys feel any better, Merida doesn't genuinely loathe Hiccup as much as she lets on. She's kinda indifferent to him tbh, she's just super concerned about protecting her reputation as a hardened badass with no emotions. I also had Hiccup think Merida left the notes instead of Anna for some meta humor…like, because I write Jackunzel fanfiction, everyone automatically assumes I ship Mericcup as well because that's the EXPECTED pairing, even though I in fact ship Hiccanna, a much more obscure and unexpected pairing that nobody sees coming XD**

 **So for whatever reason, I can't really see a BOY nicknaming Rapunzel "Punzie," but it's easy for me to see her female friends doing it. So that's why in my stories, Jack never calls her Punzie (sometimes Punz though) but Anna and Merida do it all the time XD**

 **Hope you enjoyed this little prequel, and keep watch for the Young Love and Missing Cats sequel coming up! Might not be for a while since it takes a bit to write these things (and I'm already working on finishing up another fanfic), but it will definitely happen!**

 **Holy fuck, these author's notes are way too long, I seriously need to find my chill D:**


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